New Friends & The Real City That Never Sleeps

Well it looks like I’m starting to really fall behind. There’s so much to see and do here that I find it difficult to sit down and write. I hope everyone enjoys these posts! Luckily for you, they’re going to be shorter from now on. As the novelty begins to wear off (and the further I get behind), only the BEST of experiences will get recorded ☺ I’ve also started taking more pictures of food, so that should save me from having to spend so much time describing it ;) So, almost 2 weeks ago now on March 21….

TOKYO!

My new coworker Will and I have a similar fondness for adventure. I spent a couple nights last week trying to find a hotel and only last-minute on Friday afternoon was I lucky enough to book a room (due to cancellation) at the government hotel in Tokyo. This place is amazing. Will and I paid $79 for a humongous room, complete with 2 twin beds, a sofa-bed, walk-in closet, makeup table… seriously, THE WORKS!
It took some figuring out, but the train is now our servant. After watching several trains pass us, waiting for the express out of Yokosuka, we realized the directions given by the hotel assume that we’re traveling during peak rush hour – there IS no express train out of this station. So we jump on, only to crawl along, stopping at every stop until finally I happen to spot an express across the tracks. We make a mad dash for it and cruise the rest of the way to Tokyo in style.
Upon arrival in Tokyo we had the next challenge of finding the place. For all the amazing little conveniences the Japanese have thought of, they’re still lagging in a few areas. #1 pet peeve is obviously the hotel reservation system. I suppose it doesn’t help that I can’t read a lick of Kanji, but seriously, booking a hotel here is HARD. Number 2 on my list is the addressing system. Apparently buildings are numbered based on the neighborhood and the order in which they were built. So they really make no sense whatsoever and furthermore most aren’t labeled anyway. So businesses generally include a map of the location on their advertisements. I’ve even seen locals draw me maps when giving me restaurant suggestions, etc. #3 is the severe lack of trashcans. I will pay you $100 to find me a public trashcan in Tokyo. Someone told me that there was a bombing involving a trash can and so they simply did away with them all. Surprisingly there is absolutely no litter on the sidewalks/streets. I bet the city is saving a ton of money on trash collection… At any rate, I guess this would be a good time to talk about Japanese trash.
When I first got here I wondered how in the heck Japan dealt with all the trash. Everything is disposable. I RARELY use chopsticks that aren’t the disposable kind and everything you buy comes in plastic. These facts combined with the limited land available on this island were totally confusing. It turns out the Japanese people are SERIOUS about sorting their trash – in some cases I’ve seen up to 5 different bins. Whatever is combustible is incinerated and then recycling takes care of the majority of other items. I guess it must be expensive though because occasionally they will search my bag coming on to the base. Not so much for security, but to prevent the Japanese workers from sneaking in their trash!


OK, back to Tokyo. So Will and I check into our plush 5-star hotel room and grab a quick nap before dinner. Markus (who has now come to be known as “The Rascal”) had invited us to a cocktail party hosted by a modeling agency and we agreed to meet up beforehand for dinner. Since this is Markus’ hood we asked him for a good place to meet up and get some dinner. The place he takes us is a really nice izakaya, the kind where you have to take your shoes off almost before you even step inside. The Japanese have a saying that I will paraphrase: Japanese people gracefully slide off their shoes and step backward onto the tatami mat while foreigners fumble and stumble their way through. Markus and Will are still new to the game so they actually bring their shoes to the table with them. OH NO! :P You’re supposed to leave them in the cubby by the door.
Anyway, it’s packed so we find 3 chairs/stools at the counter and are immediately handed the gaijin menu. This is a yakitori place where the meats are layed out in front of you and you can actually watch them cooking it up. To the left you can see the rows of meats and to the right you can see the excellent selection of sake.

On the menu they have everything you can think of. Among those I can remember: pork, chicken, beef, liver, neck part, eggplant, zucchini, intestine, beans, skin, heart, and horse meat sashimi. I couldn’t think of a body part that you couldn’t get on a stick. The experience turned out to be a ton of fun as we tried all kinds of different things and asked the people sitting next to us for recommendations. Some we took and others we didn’t.

The best recommendation was the sake. Somehow we got across “top shelf” and were given sake masu, which is a glass of sake in a little box. The sake is poured into the glass so that it overflows into the box and at this particular place they even overflowed the box onto the counter! Now, I’m no sake expert, but it was darn good. We shared the box with our neighbors since they were so friendly. Here’s Markus raising the box. KAMPAI!




As is typical in Japan, the entire restaurant seems to turn to see you off when you leave. With much bowing and “arigato’s,” the host laid out our shoes for us and we were off to the model party.
Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the model party. It was quite the swanky affair where we talked to various foreigners living in Japan. English, German, French, Spanish, Israeli, and Indian to name a few. There was a DJ and expensive (normally priced for Tokyo) cocktails and the place was packed. After a bit we decided to move on and check out the clubbing scene.
There is very little difference between the club that we went to and the ones I’ve been to in the states. Except perhaps that you can stay out waaay too late. We were in the Roppongi area of Tokyo, which is basically where all the foreigners hang out so this view may be a little skewed. Regardless, clubbing is not usually my scene, but we had fun anyway. Here’s a shot of Will gettin’ down with the locals, one of the very few pictures I have from the evening.




The next morning, at Markus’ insistence, we checked out the famous Tokyo fish market, Tsukiji. If you think Seattle has a great fish market you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. This place is HUGE and NUTS. There are little trucks driving around, darting every which way and you have to be on your guard lest you get run over by one carrying a 200lb tuna.
So this market is apparently one of the biggest in the world. Fish comes in from all over the world to feed the insatiable Japanese appetite for the fresh stuff. Here’s a (bad) shot of the auctioning that takes place. If you’ll notice, each fish has its tail cut off. This is so that the buyers can go around and smell/taste it in order to decide how much to bid. These guys are SERIOUS about their maguro!

More random fish shots.















And the best part… The freshest sushi I have ever eaten. I’m glad I have a picture because I can’t possibly describe how good it was. Cold fish flesh that literally melts in your mouth? Good? OH YES. I’m ruined on sushi in the States now, I’m sure of it. Or anywhere else in the world for that matter. As I understand it, the best fish from all over the world is brought to Japan because this is where they’ll get the best price. Sorry NYC and LA, Paris, London, Hong Kong.



That day we were reveling in the amazing weather and just bummed around Tokyo. We took more trains and walked more miles than I can count. Here are Will and I after exploring the Imperial Palace.

All the signs here are in Japanese, so I don’t have a lot of info for you. It’s where the emperor lives and I’m sure it’s gorgeous in the spring. There’s a moat, a stone wall, some gardens… I was disappointed that you really couldn’t ever see the royal residence. This place will be really beautiful in the spring when everything is in bloom.














No more pics of Tokyo, but one highlight was the crazy electronics store, Yodobashi, in the Akihabara electronics (nerd) district. I bought a bunch of accessories for my ipod that for some reason I can’t get in the states. The second highlight was the yakitori restaurant we went to for dinner. We couldn’t read anything, nor could the staff understand a word we said. We ended up with the “assortment” of meats on a stick. I think it ruined Will’s taste for pork yakitori. I don’t know what mine was and I don’t want to know. We were exhausted from the early morning and the day of urban hiking so we called it a night in favor of getting up early Sunday to get out of town and go see a temple.
I had no idea where we were going, but Markus had picked this out as a fun day trip he wanted to do. Takaosanguchi.
There were about 7 different ways you could get to the top of the mountain and along the trail were various shrines, temples, etc. Also lots of vending machines and little restaurants. Will and I had packed light for the weekend, but we still had our bags pretty full, especially after the Akihabara electronics shopping spree, so we hiked up some serious inclines wearing jeans and messenger bags. We didn’t find out until we reached the bottom on the return trip that there were lockers we could have rented for 2 bucks. DOH!


We picked the “pilgrim’s route” on the way up, which was a wide and paved path that was also pretty busy. We kept seeing these crazy monkey signs. I’d like to hear some comments on what in the heck you think they’re trying to say. One monkey looks a little daft and the other looks slightly intimidating. They’re both cartoons though, so what harm could really come?
After seeing probably ten of these things we come to the monkey viewing center! Oh boy! Markus got really excited and so we all paid 400yen to go watch the monkeys run around and listen to this guy talk non-stop. Of course we have no idea what he’s saying, but, just like at Yodobashi, the voice didn’t stop.
On the way out we found the monkey gallery and did our best to blend in.













Once reaching the top the view was pretty amazing, although hazy. Which I can imagine is pretty standard considering the size of the megalopolis that is Tokyo. The pictures didn’t come out well so I didn’t waste the time posting them.



Somehow along the way we learned that the local specialty is soba noodles so we had some lunch in the sun at the top and then headed down.





The path we chose for the way down was more like a real hiking trail, with lots of exposed tree roots, streams, and other obstacles to navigate. We saw waterfalls and what must have been monks’ living quarters and also got our shoes and pants extremely muddy.
Finally we found the train station and settled in for the long ride back to Yokosuka. Let me tell you. This was one exhausting weekend. Almost two weeks later and I feel like I’m still recovering. Until next time!